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thanks for sharing sw2geeks. i don't have a grill either so that's still not an option, at least not yet.

i'm thinking of getting an aftermarket sous vide temp controller that can serve as a temp regulator for a smoker (two birds in one stone, sous vide temp controller and a smoker temp controller in one!), and since it's only $50, that i'm gonna think up using a hot plate and a cast iron pan. for the sous vide set up, i'd probably get a food grade immersion pump to circulate the water... but that's for another project. hehe. still trying to complete my kitchen toys first before i get on up to the really serious kitchen stuff.

well this i promise that when it all gets cured i'll take pictures hehe.

I was thinking once it's salt cured it should be OK to smoke. What is the traditional method for protein longevity?

i'll see what i can think up with, with what's locally available here then i'll see what my options are with cold smoking or otherwise. =D

protein longevity? you got me, curing it. it should be okay....was just overthinking things.... 3rd world butchering isn't exactly all that sanitary, haccp here is an afterthought, but then again our guts are bit more resilient. lol.

The best way to smoke for longevity is cold smoking. A couple of five or ten gallon cans and some pipe, sheet metal screws a drill and some bolts and you can have a simple workable smoker. You want to separate the heat from the meat so the smoke is cool when it gets to the target. We used to use old refrigerators back when they were all metal. Had a box stove for the heat, about 8 feet of stove pipe and the ice box. Made perfect smoked fish, meats and cheese.

Of course what fuel you use to make the smoke has a direct impact on the flavor. Here we have fruit woods, oaks, cherry and other nut woods.

Or you could move to a subartic climate like I live in and wait for a day that is -10 and do it then.

yup know all about it. only thing i'm worried about cold smoking is being in a tropical country. thanks for the tip.

Nice work on the bacon man! Looks great! Just make sure you're using nitrites and not nitrates in your cure, big diff

And Cold smoking really just means smoking around/under 100f. It could even be pushed up a few more degrees. So as long as you do it on a cooler day, or cooler eve, you should have no problems. And it is really quite easy to setup a simple smoker, and well worth it. All the ones suggested here are great ideas. I don't follow you on the sous vide/smoker setup, maybe I'm a bit slow today lol.

And IMHO, hot smoking requires more equipment and is quite a bit tougher than cold smoking. Try it!!

finally the bacon is ready! lol. washed off the cure, left it in the chiller for 24 hours to get that "skin" that everyone looks for in cured meats.

fried up a few

i love making breakfast meals at all hours of the day. but this time i had it as a warm salad and bacon vinaigrette dressing with an egg over easy. too bad i forgot to take pix of the salad. lol.

oh and i had this for lunch:

sea mantis! darn things look more like bugs than anything. they taste like a cross between lobster and shrimp. in my language the name for this gets to be sea centipede, which is kinda wrong. coz it looks more like a mantis coz of the front appendages. didn't get to cook it coz i woke up and my mom (yes i live with my mother, financial problems and all that) she just steamed it up with some salt and that was that. just wanted to post it coz i haven't had this in probably 15 or more years.

wish i had a smoker, coz this thing still feels like it needs to get smoked to dry it out some more and add flavor. as for the flavor from the test batch, it tasted more like the filipino favorite tocino. (toh-see-no) so it's like a cross between bacon and tocino. which is fine. guess i'll need to tweak the rub that i added a bit more. i got subtle hints of all that i added so that was pretty good.

tocino is made similarly like bacon. pink salt, sugar and salt, minus the smoking and most likely the proper ratio of curing agent. it's probably the closest thing we can relate to as bacon here. it's a lot sweeter than bacon and usually made with leaner cuts of pork. notice on this sample picture that even the fat on the tocino is pink / red. i don't even eat the stuff knowing what's in it. it's good though. lol.